What tool can I use for Image backup of CentOS7 (IFL doesn't work).

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jeffw_00
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Joined: 2006/12/17 02:55:29

What tool can I use for Image backup of CentOS7 (IFL doesn't work).

Post by jeffw_00 » 2017/12/17 14:08:51

Hi - I finished configuring my CentOS 7 system and want to backup the disk image. I typically use TeraByte Unlimited's Image for Linux. But it does not support the GPT file system used by CentOS 7 (I verified this with their support). As a result, it can't distinguish between used/unused sectors, and wants to backup the entire (~2TB) partition.

What tool do people use for image backup? An appropriate image backup tool will back up only the used sectors.

Thanks!
/j

hunter86_bg
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Re: What tool can I use for Image backup of CentOS7 (IFL doesn't work).

Post by hunter86_bg » 2017/12/17 15:08:25

You can use 'dd | gzip/bzip2/pbzip2' to create an image and compress the zeroes.

jeffw_00
Posts: 60
Joined: 2006/12/17 02:55:29

Re: What tool can I use for Image backup of CentOS7 (IFL doesn't work).

Post by jeffw_00 » 2017/12/17 15:28:07

I tried the command as you gave it - didn't do anything. There probably is a way to configure dd to do a compressed image backup.

Although - there's a lot of suggestion on the web that if my disk did die, I'd want to re-install the latest O/S. So I'm thinking about a tar cvfz of the /etc area (so I get my config changes), the /var area (to get things like the yum log), and the user areas.

What do other people do?
/j

hunter86_bg
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Re: What tool can I use for Image backup of CentOS7 (IFL doesn't work).

Post by hunter86_bg » 2017/12/18 02:13:49

The previous command was stripped of any options on purpose.
'dd' is a good to make images, but for anything in use - the data won't be consistent.
Maybe a tarball created with tar/star or simple 'rsync -avP' could be more useful.

desertcat
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Re: What tool can I use for Image backup of CentOS7 (IFL doesn't work).

Post by desertcat » 2017/12/18 21:56:34

jeffw_00 wrote:I tried the command as you gave it - didn't do anything. There probably is a way to configure dd to do a compressed image backup.

Although - there's a lot of suggestion on the web that if my disk did die, I'd want to re-install the latest O/S. So I'm thinking about a tar cvfz of the /etc area (so I get my config changes), the /var area (to get things like the yum log), and the user areas.

What do other people do?
/j
the dd command is pretty bullet proof, not great, a little cumbersome, but it does the job. Backcula has a lot of good features I've been told, but is overkill for most people. I myself plan to do another backup of my system right after the New Year, as a result of almost toasting my system (I screwed up the permissions for the root password and thus did not have access to root), I'll be using the dd command again. Ideally it would be great to run it as a cron job, but right now my ssd is filled but something I've been meaning to talk to my buddy about doing to see if it is possible.

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